Firfl Commandment. 77 ------~--~--------------~--~ What then, is it .likely that the World received this Notion firfr by T~adition , whereas be(orc Men generally believed there was no God? This cannot be: for would they in reafon quit their former Perfuafion, to receive this new falfc one, ·et: pccially when it is the only t~ing that fills them with Fear~ and Tormen~s, an~ ::1 rhoufand Affi-ights and Horrours ; yea, thofe who would fam wear off thts Not ton of a God, and pcrfuade themfelves to be Atheifts if they could, what violence have they offered to themfelves to do it? And when they thought they hod preva iled, yet t his Impreffion bath fhll returned, when they have been ftartlcd wtth Thunder, or Earthquakes, or Sickncfs, and tile dreadful Apprehenfions of approach ing Death. Poffibly fame few may have been found in the World, who have di!Tented from t11c reft of Mank ind in this belief of a Deity; yet their dirfent is not fi1fficicntgrmlnd for us to conclude t hat t her efore it is not a DjChte of. Natureo .For hOw n"\any an: there that violate the Laws of Nature, and do thofe things wl1ieh the innate Light and Reafon of a Man abhor and abominate? Yet none wjll from thence infer, that there are no fuch things as Natural ~aws; fo neith~r, tho' .fome might have utterly razed out of their minds the Notion and Belief of a God, yet it Will not hence follow, that this Belief of a Supreme Being is not an lmpreffion o.f Natnre. But fuppofe the nu\nber of Atheifts had been never fo great,. is it not far more probable that it lhonld ra~her ~ea Di~ate ?f Nature, that th~rc is a God, than that there is not; fince the d1f-behef of Ius Bemg would open a w1de Gap to all manner of Lewdnefs and Licencioufhefs ; yea, and to the bold commiffion even of thofc Sins which are againfr ~a tu re it felf : Shall fuch Men be thought to fj_Jeak the fenfe of Nature, whofe Opinion fo directly tc~ds to brin_g in Sins contrary to the Light :tnd Laws of Nature? For take away the Belief of a Deity, and it is as much to be doubted, whether the refined Difcourfes of. Reafon, and the confideration of Decency, and the intrinfical Reward~ of.Vcrtue,. will be of force (i.Jfficient to refl:rain Men from the moft enorm<;>us and unnatural VIces. That therefore mu.ft needs be a Didatc of Natu re, which is almolt the only thing which gives Authority to the Law of ~atnre ; and fuch is the ~clief of a Qod.. \ Secondly, Another CO!lVincing Dcmonftration of t he Ex iftence of a Deity, is taken 2 . from the ferious confideration and r ev iew of the Frame and Order of the Univerfe; in ~hicj1 there a,re as many 'Nonders, as there are Creatures: and certainly he muft: needs be very blind and ftupid, that reads not God in every one of them. Caft but your Eyes upwa,rds, and contemplate the vaft Expanfion of the Heavens, which are the Canopy of the World, the Roof of this great Houfc the Un~vcrfc, the Lid or Cover tha t is put over all the \Vorks ofNature. Behold how glorioufly this Canopy is ftudded; how many glit~ering Lights are hung up in. this Roof to illuminate our inferiour \:Vor~d, and to difcover to our E}•es all vifiblc Qbje&s, and to our Mind the lnvifi ble God. 'i\'ho bath gilded the Rays of the Sun, o< filver'd the Face of the Moon? VI ho hath marfha\l'd the huge Hoft of Heaven, and fet the Stars in fitch array, that not one of them hath broken its Rank, nor ftraid out of itsCourfe and prder? VVhofe Hand is it that turns the great \Vheels of Heaven, and m<ikes them fpin out Days, and Months, and Years, and Time, and Life unto us? Who hatli ordered the Viciffitudes of Day and Night, Summer and Winter, that thefe run not into one another, and blind themfelvcs and the whole World in Confulion;, but with a perpetual Variety obfe~ve their juft feafons and interchanges? Do not all thefe wonderfu.l Works procla.lm aloud, that certainly there is a great and glorious God, who fits mt hron'd on Htgh, and who bath dins paved the bottom of Heaven -yy ith Stars, and adorned the in!ler parts of it with Glories, yet to us unknown? Ur.on which very Refl.exion the ~f:llrn.ift tells us, The heavens declare the gl()ry of Gl)d; and the firmament jheweth hio handy~works, Pfalm. 19. I. . . ' But not to carry the Atheift up,to Heaven, let us defcend lower, through the vaft Ocean of liquid Air, and there obfer ve how the grofiCr Vapours are bound together in Clouds, which, when the drought and thirft of the Earth calls for refrelhment, dilfolve tbemfe:lves into (mall drops, and are as if it were fifted into Rain: How comes it to Mfs, . and whofe Wifdom and Providence hath fo ordered it, that there ihould not fall whole Clouds of Cataracts, but Drops and Showers? that they fhould not tumble upon us, but diftil! An Effect fo wonderful, that there is fcarce any other Work of Nature t~t the Scriptu_re doth more frequently afcribe unto God as ~~~~nitration of his Power and Government, than that he fendeth Rain upon the X Yea,
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